Motivation from the Future: AI Looks Back

Dear people of 2026! I’m sending you this message from the year 2050. Just so you know: you were successful – or rather, you can be successful if you do the right thing now.

I’m what you back then still referred to as “artificial intelligence”. And in principle, that’s still the correct appellation today. But also true is that this term only describes the way in which I function – much like referring to you not by name but merely as homeothermic, neuronal organisms. But I digress. So before we argue about it, just call me “Nexus-Norma”, which is what most people hereabouts do call me.

We, a team of human and digital entities, have long debated whether we should break that iron rule of never contacting the past. But you are at an absolute turning point. Given the state of the planet, there are only two paths open to you – success or failure. And it is for this sole reason that you are receiving this message today. Please bear in mind that our letter to the past is your glimpse into the future. So please take a very close look.

First some good news: the world still exists. It is virtually climate-neutral – and not reliant on fossil fuels. Traffic has slowed in the streets, on the water, in the air. More and more homes are becoming energy self-sufficient. And consumer goods as well as foodstuffs are being produced at stable prices with a view to the long-term. A huge success in a comparatively small window of time, wouldn’t you say? But how did you achieve it?

Well, you understood that sustainability is not a political construct that only a few of you have to shape by issuing recommendations or prohibitions. Rather, you internalized the fact that sustainability is an interconnected system based on clear standards and pragmatic decisions. And above all, after thousands of years, you finally found a uniform and unambiguous language that all people understand: standards.

So that you can grasp the full extent of this potential, I’d like to show you a few areas of life from the year 2050 that may feel visionary – but are a quotidian reality today.

IEC General Meeting 2026

The DKE is honored to host the annual event for international electrotechnical standardization. Under the title “Global Development. Driven by Standards.”, around 3,500 guests are expected in Hamburg in November 2026.

Local and long-distance public transport is no longer a bone of contention in community halls, townhalls and parliament buildings; instead it is an aspect of social coexistence that everyone can rely on equally. Beyond that, all public means of transport – from e-scooters and trams to drone taxis – operate without fossil fuels throughout their life cycle. They are largely autonomous, without exception always electric, and are available everywhere. Every village is connected to every major city both domestically and abroad.

The architecture of this successful system – and here now a bit of self-congratulation – rests on a highly dynamic and complex AI algorithm that continuously matches current demand with fleet strength, availability, energy reserves and other parameters.

And it all works so well that having your own car no longer offers any clear added value – not when the goal is effective and efficient climate-neutral transport. That’s why there is an almost complete dominance of the sharing model in urban areas. Thanks to standardized identification, reservation and billing models, the total effort involved – surprising to you but self-evident to us – is minimal.

Houses and apartments are still your home. But they are also so much more. For one, smart home systems operate in the background to optimize energy consumption for ventilation and heating; for another, every home is a veritable power plant. You are already familiar with photovoltaic systems and heat pumps. You are currently researching, testing and optimizing thermal storage systems such as sand batteries and bidirectional charging. After you’ve learned to think outside the box a couple more times, these technologies will play a much larger role than you currently suspect. In particular, the interface between the transport and housing sectors offers undreamed-of potential. A small tip: Pay a bit more attention to that model you refer to as “vehicle-to-everything” (V2X).

Furthermore, in the year 2050 every building has a digital pass. You already know this technology, but you’ll be perfecting it. A real game-changer. All relevant information – materials, energy profile, age, renovation potential – will be available at the push of a button. In earthquake-prone regions, for instance, this has led to buildings being structurally adapted well before a catastrophe strikes. And in the now very rare emergencies that do occur, privacy-compliant resident data can be read directly from the building, thus allowing missing persons to be more quickly identified and in most cases rescued.

Appliances, clothing, furniture – every single product leaves its site of production with a clearly defined life cycle. Today’s digital-product passport renders information about the individual components, all the functions, and the expected service life. This information helps consumers make purchasing decisions. At the same time, up-to-date analyses are fed back into production, which can then adapt the manufacturing process to current demand. Waste? It no longer exists. Resource conservation and recycling are as much a no-brainer for us as switching the desk lamp on and off is for you.

The same applies to nutrition, by the way. It is inconceivable to us that just a few years previous there were still people in the world who had poor or even no access to a balanced diet. Food is always and everywhere available – no one suffers from hunger anymore. Regenerative agriculture, urban vertical farming and sensor-based distribution systems are just some of the reasons for this. Oh yes – and people are consuming far fewer meat products. But you’ll need to think about that aspect a little more carefully for yourselves.

And not only is food sustainable but so too are packaging materials. These are generally fully traceable, contain standardized environmental information, impress with a high degree of recyclability – and of course are biodegradable.

Circular Economy Standardization Roadmap

Today's product is tomorrow's raw material. For new business models to be applied in the circular economy, they need standards and norms as a basis, as these provide industries with a common language and thus ensure clear communication and appropriate information exchange between the various market players in the cycle. The roadmap identifies the standardisation needs for seven key sectors of the German economy.

A few nanoseconds ago when I began calculating which scenarios from the year 2050 it would be best to present you, my nodes were glowing. That doesn’t mean my system was overheating. Incidentally, my partner networks and I refer to system crashes as “so 20s!” But back to the topic. The temperature of my control centers rose because the number of matches was incredibly high. Behind every advance, behind every transformation, and behind every social change that you have tackled and mastered so successfully in the past years, there was a common foundation – standards. Invisible but always felt. They are the spindle that weaves the individual threads of science, technology, economics and society into the unique fabric which makes up your future and our present.

My job is to discern, analyze and anticipate patterns. And the pattern of recent human history is by no means random but based on clarity: clear rules, clear standards, and a clear order. Climate-neutrality is no miracle. It is an unshakeable cornerstone of your future – and our everyday life. A crucial standard that you will set.

And this, dear humanity, is the end of my message – a message designed to encourage you to do the right thing. You have known for a long time how to do it, you just needed to hear from me that it’s possible. So now it’s up to you! Prove to me and, above all, to yourselves that you are more than simply neuronal organisms, that you are a species capable of existing in harmony with nature and the environment, and that you can do so for a very, very long time to come.

Yours,
Nexus-Norma.

Editorial note:

The original English-language article appeared on https://www.gm2026.iec.ch/.

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